ABSTRACT
Domestic and foreign scholars faced serious difficulties in studying Soviet naval policy during almost all the seven decades of Soviet rule because of a strict ban on public discussion. There were no open sources providing the detailed information concerning Soviet naval programmes, or the Soviet Navy’s strategic plans, operations schedules, locations, size, armaments, training, reserves, etc. The Soviet secrecy law covered not only detailed information but general information too. Thus, the official data on Soviet naval policy and the Soviet Navy have not been available for most of the past 80 years, except for general information, such as numbers of ships, aircraft, and their general location.
